Christmas Par-tays!!!

Here are some snapshots of the parties we went to this Christmas.

Venue #1: Yakimix. Eat-all-you-can yakiniku style.

Marinated meat ready for grilling.

A wide range of options to choose from but everything tasted the same.

. . . smokeless grill

Team Keith . . .

. . . our meat choices

cooking master boy gian . . .

He did all the grilling for us.

Venue #2: Off The Grill. Live band and booze.

. . . music brought to you by K24/7

They're actually pretty good. They played some good old r&b's and a whole bunch of party music like Teach Me How To Dougie, Party Rock Anthem, Moves Like Jagger and more.

. . . lyza and the frozen margarita

The margarita tasted like some fruit juice sans the alcohol. I still prefer Agave's version.




Venue #3: Chicago KTV. Videoke sesh and more booze.



And nope, we're not party animals. We're more of the party poopers. Kidding!

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How We Celebrated Christmas This Year

First Christmas in our new place and we had the most modest celebration ever. After all the partying, this time we celebrated it peacefully. Just the two of us. Away from relatives, from loud parties and sumptuous Noche Buena. No Christmas lights and decors. Not even Christmas songs. Doesn't sound like Christmas at all, hmm?. Well, the neighbor's radio was blaring with Christmas carols. At least there's something to remind me that it's Christmas.

I was looking forward to this Christmas. I planned to put up Christmas lights and decors but Tapioca wasn't so enthusiastic about the idea. Oh well, that's Tapioca, the Grinch! All ideas went out to the window. But next year, I will certainly make bawi and make sure that our house will be all dress up for Christmas. As early as January I will start shopping around for a nice little Christmas tree. Tamang tama that's also the same time when Christmas decors will all go on sale. Yay for me!

Christmas is not the right time of the year for the Grinch. Yeah, we party hard and I mean HARD. Two consecutive nights , two consecutive weekends, the Grinch couldn't handle all that. So our ending? Christmas at the hospital. And wait til you hear the best part. The doctor recommended a soft diet for him. That means he can't eat meat, dairy, oily or fatty or anything salty, sour and spicy food. Basically that's about 90% of what he eats. And here I am making inggit with . . .

. . . ice cream from mrs. fields!!!

pistachio ice cream topped with the famous mrs. fields choco chip cookie . . .

Ewan ko ba but he insisted to buy me ice cream. And who will say no to Mrs. Fields? I swear I can hear the ice cream screams "Torture! Torture! Torture!" to Tapioca. Kebs ko, but I'm enjoying the ice cream. Hahaha!!!! I'm so mean! *guilty lang*

Tapioca had the weirdest and strangest sickness ever. Every time we go to the hospital, doctors couldn't seem to find out what's his illness. Therefore we spent almost half a day in the hospital going thru several tests.

. . . is it a boy or a girl?

nah, it's just jebs *ewww* . . .

Of course he's not pregnant (and will never be even for a hundred years!).

We though it's going to be just the two of us on Christmas. And then we got a surprise guest. A furry little friend came to visit us. She looked so thin and hungry. Too bad we didn't have anything to feed her except for the Christmas porridge (yan ang handa namin). After eating the kitten went back to the street. The following day she came back. This time Tapioca decided to keep her. It was his decision alone. I was surprise because he never like cats. As far as I know he's more of a dog person and he's allergic to cats. Turns out he wasn't pala. Meet the newest member of our household. Our new baby errr pet.



We met her on Christmas which fell on a Sunday therefore we named her Sunday. She was so dirty and she likes going to bed with us so we gave her a bath. Thank goodness she didn't scratch or bite us but we can tell she was traumatized by the experienced. After that she wouldn't even go near us. So ayun we made lambing to her and since she's clean na we let her stay on the bed.

Tapioca loves to take her photos. Let me show you one of his shots that I really like.

. . . you spoiled little kitten you!

Taray ng baby namin noh? By the way, that's her favorite spot on the bed. Kelangan naka-lean din cya sa pillow namin.

So there you go folks. Our out of the norm Christmas for 2011.

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A Birthday Post

Just turned 29 today but it felt like I'm 30 already. Gone are the days when I get all excited because I know my birthday's coming and expecting a whole party shebang. The though of another year adding up on my age sends me the shivers. Ilang years na lang and my age will be out of the calender. Gosh, why am I rushing to grow old? Ever since I turned 20 I always rounded off my age to the next year. Parang ayoko na i-remember yung age ko. Basta I'm twenty, twenty something period hahaha. Scared of facing another decade in life. I know this is just a phase.

Well, putting the negative vibes aside (and the dreadful thought of growing old sitting idle and letting time pass me by) let me focus more on the positive aspect.

Positive aspect #1. People say I don't look my age. Hah! Ayan may pambawi. Thank you Lord. Buti na lang baby face ang lahi namin LOL!

Positive aspect #2. I should be thankful I reached this age. Still, God has given me another year to enjoy life. Isn't that the real reason why we celebrate our birthdays? Also, I'm thankful I have a job that pays well. We have a comfortable house we live in. We get to eat three times a day (and food trips every now and then). We have nice clothes to wear and among other things I would like to emphasize more on what matter most to me.

First of all - my family and friends who have known me from the very moment I live on this planet earth. They're the very reason what and who I am today.

Second of all - Tapioca who loves me selflessly and unconditionally. This guy just loves to spoil me in every possible ways and I always wonder how he can put up with all my craziness and mood swings that never seem to end. Love you baby!

And last but not the least (and it's included on every one's wish) - good health. You know at times like this (especially pag tumatanda na) health is something you don't want to take for granted. So ngayon ang drama ko healthy-healthihan para naman I can have more birthdays to come. Never mind the age basta I'm breathing and enjoying life.

Life is not always a walk in the park. There's always ups and downs, twists and turns and sometimes di mo na alam kung saang direction papunta. The last 2 years was pretty tough on me. Still I can say despite everything that happened, good or bad or even worst, life has been so good to me. Life thought me things I will never learn in school or anywhere else. Life has its way to make you understand things that you will never understand when you were younger.

Sounds familiar ba? Honga eh narinig ko lang din to somewhere out there. Kung sino man ang original na nag-quote nun ang galing mo pre! Saludo me sayo. After all these years naintindihan ko na din ang ibig mong sabihin bwahahahaha!

Enough said, let's get back to regular programming. I still decided to celebrate my special day despite all this age issues. Pero cyempre simple lang. Dun lang kami sa pizza parlor na favorite ko at ni Tapioca. Hulaan nyo kung saan. Sirit na? Eto ang clue. . .

. . . hearty italian soup

I keep ordering tomato based soup and ended up telling myself I like soup but I'm not a fan of anything tomato soup. Guess I still have to look for the tomato soup of my likings.

greek salad . . .

Everyone in the table loved this salad. Who says veggies aren't yummy? Definitely not me.

. . . garlic bread

I love their garlic bread. I swear I can eat the entire basket of bread by myself. But you know sharing is caring!

spaghetti with giant meatballs . . .

Noodles for long life. Those meatballs are huge. They're so good but super filling I can hardly finish one giant ball so I shared it with Tapioca.

. . . friend chicken and mojo potatoes

The mojos are yummy as always and you can never go wrong with chicken fried to a golden crisp.

manager's choice thin crust pizza . . .

I didn't know we ordered pizza pala so there you go only few slices left when I got to take its picture.

. . . marble brownie ala mode

Matanda na daw ako so wag na magcake. I don't think so. However they don't have any cakes in Shakey's so we ordered this instead. Isipin ko na lang ice cream cake hehehe!

I really though I won't get a birthday cake for this year. But I made kulit to Tapioca to get me a cake so ending I got this . . .

jamaican cake from sugarhouse . . .

Yay! Finally a cake. And I shared this with my officemates.

. . . me and the cake

Here's to another year ahead. Hopefully, I wouldn't feel so bad when I hit the big 3-0.

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Urameshi-ya at Little Tokyo

Second leg of the pre-Christmas rocking parties. This time we're going Japanese. In a tiny corner of the streets of Makati lie upon our fave Jap resto in the city. Been here once, twice (I still haven't blog about that, so sorry) and now, third time and I'm sure this won't be the last. We brought with us friends from work who adores anything Japanese.

Little Tokyo is a small community with several restaurants specializing in different Japanese dishes. We settled at Urumeshi-ya. Their specialty? Yakiniku! We were able to get a reservation to dine inside where we were given seats with lower tables and you get to dine just like the Japanese people do. It felt like we got transported in another country sans the visa and airline tickets.

. . . saké on a wooden bucket and tall glasses of beer

We started off with some drinks. The saké (also known as nihonshu) and beer. We got free beer stubs from the last time we went here. For every 500 pesos spent you got 1 free beer. The last time we went here we spent more than 4 grand so that's about 8 beer stubs.

Tall shot glass for the big guys and the short one for the little girls.

tofu salad and gyoza . .

For appetizer, we had my ever favorite tofu salad and gyoza. Maricris was raving on the salad. She said she never eat tofu until she tried the tofu salad. A must try.

And here's Christian showing us the proper way of serving saké (or should I say the geisha way hehehehe whatevs!!!).

. . . takoyaki from Hana

The most authentic takoyaki you can get here in Manila. Love the brown sauce. It gives the takoyaki a wonderful flavor. Also those fish flakes on top were awesome. It moves like the takoyaki balls were alive! Seriously. I don't have a video but I think you can check it out on Youtube :-)

And here's for the main event . . .

the wagyu set meal, slices after slices of melt in your mouth goodness . . .

Time to grill those meat. Tapioca loves this grill. How he wish we have one at home.

happy faces = satisfaction

As if we haven't had enough of Jap food, we ordered some more.

. . . shrimp and vegetable tempura from Kagura

This was okay. We like the tempura more from the other resto whose specialities are sushi and sashimi. Too bad I forgot their name.

okonomiyaki also from Kagura . . .

The good thing about Little Tokyo is you can cross order from other restos and serve it at the restaurant you're dining. These okonomiyaki came from the next door place called Kagura. These are also called Japanese pancake or Japanese pizza. We've ordered two different kinds. The okonomiyaki with everything on it and the other one, I forgot (keep on forgetting a lot of stuff tsk, tsk). It was quite filling. At this point, parang susuko na tiyan ko sa kabusugan hehe.

. . . ramen from Urameshi-ya

This was shared by Din and Anjil. We were all full to the brim but the two guys just had the need to try the ramen. They're actually comparing this ramen from the Ramen Bar in Eastwood. Oh well, I couldn't make any comments as I wasn't able to give it a try. We had try Ramen Bar before when they were still on soft opening (see it here) and we never returned. Not sure what their ramen taste like now.

At kahit busog na, there will always a room for dessert.

green tea ice shaving with red beans from Hana . . .

This had a refreshing and clean taste. A perfect palate cleanser na rin. Kung di lang nangingilo ngipin ko, I could have down two servings. That's how yummy it was. Now everyone's happy and satisfied. It's time for the picture-picture moments.

. . . din and rhea

. . . iris and christian

. . . the cruz' family - anjil,maricris and baby reily

and yours truly . . . jellybean and tapioca

. . . the boyz

the gurlz . . .

. . . iris and moi

. . . and my pictorial sesh

Just look at our beaming faces. They finally understood now how Tapioca and I feel about Little Tokyo. From the ambiance to the food and the overall experience, we're so we glad they enjoyed everything. We burned some serious cash but it was all worth it. Once again we got more beer stubs from the last time. And I mean a lot!

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Core Biwon Korean Restaurant

It's the time of the year again to be merry and joyous. The holiday festivities and pig out sesh just started for us here at Core One Biwon Korean Resto. This is the same Korean resto my friends and I loved so much. It's been 3 years since the last time I dined here.


Korean Nationals flocked this resto and that's always a good sign. If you've been watching Korean telenovelas you will notice that there's always a scene where the characters are seen eating with the use of flat stainless steel chopsticks. Here at Core Biwon we got the opportunity to try out these chopsticks. And man ang hirap! Whenever I try to pick up the food it just slides out. Ang dulas. Still you shouldn't miss this experience. Anyway, may spoon and fork naman if in case di na carry ng powers mo magchopsticks :-P

. . . the banchan

What I like most from any Korean restaurants I've tried are the free banchan or side dishes. At Biwon, they serve the most numbers of banchan. I think more than 10 different kinds. However, on this visit, I was surprise to see only 6 banchan served on our table. And my fave like the egg rolls, spicy dilis and baby potatoes were missing. I asked our server why we only have 6 side dishes. He said their side dishes changes everyday. And I was like, "okay, bat anim lang?". And ayun dedma na lang si kuya. But thinking about it, six is still a lot, right?

Another thing you shouldn't miss . . .

the soju . . .

Moving on to the main dish we had . . .

. . . samgyeopsal

with some lettuce . . .

We also had a huge hot pot of everything seafood . . .

spicy yet flavorful and piping hot. yummy!

. . . just for the 3 of us!


Now, Tapioca wasn't satisfied at all with our food so he ordered some more.

. . . bibimbap and a bowl of rice on the side

This was probably the biggest bibimbap bowl I have ever seen. Nakaseparate pa yung rice jan ha. Anyway, Tapioca said it was just okay. How he wish there was more meat.

We couldn't help but notice how Korean people eat so fast. I think several groups came after us and left before we even finished our food. Grabe eat and run ang dating. And I was like do they even enjoy their meal? Well, I guess they do. Imagine kahit nasa ibang bansa na sila they still eat the same food.

Overall, the place still remains the same. Like the interiors and the menu. But there were also noticeable changes which na miss ko ng bongga. Like the overflowing banchan na sa sobrang dami yun na lang nakakapuno sa table and also the free pineapple dessert. They don't offer any desserts at this place but if you ask for sweet endings they will be happy to serve you fresh pineapples and it's unlimited. Duh, jellybean! As if you eat fresh pineapple eh di naman. LOL. Wala lang, namiss ko lang talaga. The experience was never the same as before but still we had a good time. Party rock!

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